Sean Donahue, MD, PhD, the Sam and Darthea Coleman Professor of Pediatric Ophthalmology and past president of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS), received the Marshal M. Parks Bronze Medal at a recent AAPOS annual meeting.
AAPOS’s mission is to advance the quality of children’s eye care, support the training of pediatric ophthalmologists, support research activities in pediatric ophthalmology, and advance the care of adults with strabismus. AAPOS promotes the highest quality medical and surgical care worldwide for all children and for adults with eye misalignment.
The Marshal M. Parks Bronze Medal is awarded to past presidents of AAPOS and other individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to children’s eye care.
In the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Donahue is vice chair for External Relations and Alumni Affairs and director of the Pediatric Ophthalmology Division. He is also chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. He served as president of AAPOS from 2024-2025 following a one-year term as vice president.
“I feel so grateful to be recognized by AAPOS with this award,” said Donahue. “Dr. Parks was considered the father of pediatric ophthalmology and was described as one of the 10 most influential ophthalmologists in the 20th century. I was privileged to know him personally, and his thought processes still are embedded in my clinical and surgical thinking.
“It is such an honor to be connected with him through the organization he founded, and which has done so much to help children with ophthalmic conditions and adults with strabismus.”
Donahue joined Vanderbilt Health in 1995 and was instrumental in the creation of the Tennessee Lions Pediatric Eye Center, which opened in 1997 and became an international model program for screening young children for visual impairment. He helped grow the Pediatric Ophthalmology Service from fewer than 1,000 annual outpatient visits in 1995 to nearly 30,000 at present.
His practice involves diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases in children and the surgical treatment of adults with strabismus.
In 2004, Donahue created the pediatric ophthalmology fellowship program at Vanderbilt Health. He has introduced hundreds of trainees to clinical care and research in ophthalmology and visual sciences.
Of his 275 peer-reviewed publications, 70 have had his mentee as first author. The research that they have performed has impacted multiple areas of pediatric ophthalmology, including validation of preschool vision screening techniques; detection and interpretation of visual field defects with current and new technologies; and surgical management of complicated strabismus.
His research has dealt with validation and implementation of automated vision screening instruments that can be used in the primary care setting to detect potential eye problems in children prior to their being able to read a standard eye chart. He has been the lead author on several joint policy statements from AAPOS, the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) regarding vision screening and the pediatric eye exam in the primary care setting, and he was the senior author on an AAP-AAO-AAPOS joint statement regarding visual abnormalities and treatment in youth with concussion.
Donahue earned his MD and PhD in developmental neuroscience at Emory University in 1989. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of Pittsburgh and fellowships in neuro-ophthalmology and pediatric ophthalmology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
He has lifetime achievement awards from AAO and AAPOS; was an inaugural member of the Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine at Vanderbilt Health; and received Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s 2025 F. Peter Guengerich Award for Mentoring Postdoctoral Residents or Fellows in the Research Setting.
